I arrived to the meet the artist event exhausted, after not realizing Central Park would be in between the 6 train and the Macaulay Building and having to speed walk there so that I could make it before the speaker began. I made it just in time. When the photographer began speaking I was surprised to hear his photographs would be based on Hurricane Katrina. I remember the incident well, but as many times as I've read about it or seen the destructive pictures in the news, I never thought about it as intimately as I did throughout the presentation.

          Part II of Camera Lucida turned my understanding completely around. The first part concluded with a discussion of a number of photographs and the elements of photography such as studium, punctum, referent as well as the ideas on ontology and semiotics. Part two focuses on other ideas like the "winter garden photograph". In the second part of the book Barthes says "painting can feign reality" while photography can not because a photograph involves something "that has been".

I issue a challenge, hoping to inspire you to return to the Met as soon as possible!  Remember, it's pay what you wish, so give a dollar... two... ten... whatever!

I felt so grateful to have had the opportunity to hear Thomas Neff speak about his experiences as a photographer and to see all of the work he did to capture the images of the people affected by the devastating Hurricane Katrina. I could write and write about numerous aspects of the presentations and elaborate on the many different thoughts I had while listening to Neff speak, but I think that the most important detail to take out of this presentation is to understand his approach.